How to Make Lee Cloths

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A lee cloth is a great piece of equipment to keep on board your boat. During long passages or rough seas it's often best to sleep in the center of your boat in the main cabin (or saloon). However, with the heeling of a monohull, you want to make sure that you're snug and secure in your berth, even when you end up on the high side. This is where a lee cloth becomes your best friend.

Video Chapters:

Patterning – 0:37 min.
Making Pockets – 1:50 min.
Finishing Lee Cloth – 4:51 min.
Making Straps – 7:50 min.
Installing – 10:34 min.
Materials List – 12:12 min.

Materials List:

Phifertex^® Standard Vinyl Mesh Sand 54" Fabric – #416111
PremoBond^®Tex 90 (V-92) White UV Bonded Polyester Thread 4 oz. – #123337
Sunbrella^® Acrylic Facing Linen – #102471
#2 Spur Grommets 3/8" (Nickel-Plated Brass) – #26316
White Polypropylene Webbing – #PPLWWH
Fast Eye Snap Hook 1" (Stainless Steel) – #100532
YKK^® Double Side Release Buckle Black – #125373
Strap Eye Stainless Steel – #28221
Fabric Backed Sew Foam 58" – #124306 (optional for padded pocket)
Sunbrella^® Acrylic Bias Binding Tape Linen – #263100 (optional for pocket trim)
Stainless Steel Screws and Washers

Tools List:

Sailrite^® Ultrafeed^® LS Walking Foot Sewing Machine – #311502
Sailrite^® Ultrafeed^® Industrial Sewing Table – #120934
Gingher^® 8" Scissors Right Handed – #19104
Sailrite^® #2 Hole Cutter 3/8" – #125481
#2 Spur Grommet Die Set 3/8" – #18203
Sailrite^® Round Maul 1" – #123969
Sailrite^® Rubber Poundo Board 12" x 12" – #123962
Sailrite^® Edge Hotknife Package – #103800
Marker, Pencil, Straightedge, Screwdriver, Yardstick

A lee cloth is a piece of fabric that acts like a safety net to keep a sailor in his or her bunk. We’re going to take a closer look at lee cloth designs and show you how to make one.

Making a lee cloth is a simple sewing project, but it does require some critical thinking when it comes to attaching it to your boat. This is going to be slightly different for everyone depending on the setup of your boat and which berth your lee cloth is for. In the video, you will see that we created a webbing strap for each upper corner of our lee cloth and attached it to the woodwork in our Islander 37 sailboat. Another common attachment method is to use line to secure the lee cloth to strap eyes or handrails above the berth.

For the fabric choice on this lee cloth, we chose to use a Phifertex^® Mesh fabric to allow for airflow. In a tight bunk, it can be nice to use a fabric that breathes well for more comfortable sleeping, but really you can use any strong fabric like cotton duck, soft trampoline mesh, marine grade canvas or polyester bag mesh.

As an optional addition to your lee cloth you could add storage pockets to the outside to hold small electronics, glasses or other small necessities. We’ll outline a couple different pocket methods for you in the video.

In this video you will learn how to pattern, make pockets, add binding, make straps and install your lee cloth.

Have you made a lee cloth before? Do you have any tips on attachment methods or design? Share them in our comments!